Mitt Romney’s very real (and growing) Bain problem

The Boston Globe bombshell about the true length of Mitt Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital is a monster with the potential to metastasize.

The story, in a nutshell. Is that Romney may have stayed at Bain three years longer than he has claimed, putting the end of his tenure there at 2002 and not 1999 as he has said. A clip:

Romney has said he left Bain in 1999 to lead the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, ending his role in the company. But public Securities and Exchange Commission documents filed later by Bain Capital state he remained the firm’s “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president.”

Also, a Massachusetts financial disclosure form Romney filed in 2003 states that he still owned 100 percent of Bain Capital in 2002. And Romney’s state financial disclosure forms indicate he earned at least $100,000 as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.

The timing of Romney’s departure from Bain is a key point of contention because he has said his resignation in February 1999 meant he was not responsible for Bain Capital companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after that date. …

…Romney did not finalize a severance agreement with Bain until 2002, a 10-year deal with undisclosed terms that was retroactive to 1999. It expired in 2009.

Bain Capital and the campaign for the presumptive GOP nominee have suggested the SEC filings that show Romney as the man in charge during those additional three years have little meaning, and are the result of legal technicalities. The campaign declined to comment on the record. It pointed to a footnote in Romney’s most recent financial disclosure form, filed June 1 as a presidential candidate.

That is a potential political problem, because it means he would still have been in charge during a period when some embarrassing outsourcing took place, and it only adds to the intrigue over Romney’s refusalmto release his tax returns. (Also, Harry Reid now says Mitt couldn’t get confirmed as Senate dog catcher with issues like is hanging around.

It’s also potentially a legal problem, if it turns out Romney lied in SEC filings regarding his tenure.

But this is not going away. Not only won’t the Obama camp let up (even if Corey Booksr, Ed Rendell and the entire Blue Dog caucus told them to) … The news organizations who actually broke the story before the Globe did are still on it, and so is the rest of the media. It’s summer. What else have the got to do?

Last month, Mitt Romney’s campaign got into a dustup with the Washington Post after the newspaper reported that Bain Capital, the private equity firm the GOP presidential candidate founded, invested in several US companies that outsourced jobs to China and India. The campaign indignantly demanded a retraction, claiming that these businesses did not send jobs overseas while Romney was running Bain, and the Post stood by its investigation. Yet there is another aspect to the Romney-as-outsourcer controversy. According to government documents reviewed by Mother Jones, Romney, when he was in charge of Bain, invested heavily in a Chinese manufacturing company that depended on US outsourcing for its profits—and that explicitly stated that such outsourcing was crucial to its success.

…and Corn’s story is all the worse because the China profiteering took place during a time when no one disputes that Romney was still with Bain, not even Mitt Romney.

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s repeated claim that he played no part in executive decision-making related to Bain after 1999 is false, according to Romney’s own testimony in June 2002, in which he admitted to sitting on the board of the Lifelike Co., a doll maker that was a Bain investment during the period.

Romney has consistently insisted that he was too busy organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics to take part in Bain business between 1999 and that event. But in the testimony, which was provided to The Huffington Post, Romney noted that he regularly traveled back to Massachusetts. “[T]here were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth,” he said.

Romney’s sworn testimony was given as part of a hearing to determine whether he had sufficient residency status in Massachusetts to run for governor.

And the drips will likely just keep coming, until Romney either releases his tax returns and proves this all to be a fiction, or his campaign figures out a new strategy instead of whining that the Obama campaign is, to quote Bob Dole, “lying about my record.”

The problem for the Romney campaign, when it comes to the Bain issue, is that things are reaching the point where the facts don’t really matter. The bigger problem is that the Bain cloud now hanging over the former Massachusetts governor is growing daily, and the Romney campaign still hasn’t found a compelling way to respondto what’s becoming the driving narrative, fairly or unfairly, of the 2012 campaign.

Mitt Romney’s relationship with Bain has become a flashpoint in the presidential race as Democrats seek to tie him to corporate decisions made after 1999, when he took a leave from the private equity company to administer the Salt Lake City games until their completion in early 2002. The Boston Globe and other outlets reported this week that SEC documents show Romney was listed as a top executive until 2002.

Romney’s spokespeople have denied that he had any management role in the company during the time he was involved with the games, despite maintaining legal and financial connections to Bain. They say the title listed in SEC filings was an in-name-only position Romney maintained while on leave.

The former Massachusetts governor, however, has previously acknowledged that he remained active in the corporate arena while heading the Salt Lake City games. In a June 17, 2002, appearance before the Massachusetts State Law Ballot Commission, Romney said that during his Utah-based Olympics service, there were “were a number of social trips and business trips that brought me back to Massachusetts, board meetings, Thanksgiving and so forth.”

How much time Romney spent did or didn’t spend in Massachusetts in the years prior to 2002 became an issue when he ran for governor due to questions about his state residency.

Romney testified about his residency after Democrats challenged his eligibility to run in Massachusetts after having been based out of state. The election panel signed off on his candidacy.

Romney didn’t mention Bain Capital in his testimony as one of the companies with which he continued to work while leading the Olympic committee. Asked whether Romney attended any meetings or participated in any phone calls for Bain — as he did for other firms — a Romney spokeswoman reiterated that the candidate didn’t have an “active role” in the company during that time.

10 Responses to Mitt Romney’s very real (and growing) Bain problem

Look, an elite bigshot like Mitt shouldn’t have to explain his business dealings to us commoners–we wouldn’t understand this stuff anyway. We would never be able to make sense of his tax returns, that’s for sure. Surely we should be able to trust his character and goodwill and desire to help us out.

It appears that the “Bain problem” is a near-total fabrication on the part of Obama supporters. CNN did an expose’ on the issue on Friday and it appears that the pro-Obama ads are among the most dishonest ads released in recent years.

Given all the garbage that passses for political campaign advertising, that saying something

If it were a total fabrication, Vern, it would be akin to the Swiftboating of John Kerry, which was a total fabrication. No matter who you believe (and I believe little that Romney says, since he tends to chane it later), Bain certainly isn’t the boon he claimed it was; maybe he should run on something else, maybe his record as Governor of Massachusetts. They like their romneycare.

There are at least 12 reasons why Mitt Romney would not make a good president. Here’s John F. Ince’s list. What’s yours?

1 • Romney neither understands nor represents most Americans. The man lacks empathy for those who have not had all the benefits he has had in life. His presidency would be deeply polarizing. One can easily image his election as president would generate new waves of social unrest and violence. He clearly represents the 1% and the 99% will not tolerate policies that exacerbate the growing divisions between rich and poor.

2 • Romney’s job creation claims are inflated and unrealistic. Mitt Romney’s professional career was based on a very specific task: buying and selling companies for profit. He wants people to think that this qualifies him to be a job creator. With the exception of his investment in Staples and a few other early venture capital deals, his jobs creation claims are mostly chimera. He takes credit for creating jobs, when he was only an investor in those companies, not an executive. In practice, he predominantly used his power as an investor to eliminate jobs and shift other jobs overseas, all in the interest of making profits.

3 • Romney does not have a sound fiscal plan. Extrapolating from the projections Romney has offered for increased defense spending and tax cuts, his policies would blow a hole in the Federal budget, further eroding investors faith in the government’s ability to get its fiscal house in order.

4 • Romney has little respect for the natural environment, nor a commitment to protect and preserve it for future generations. He blindly subscribes to Republican views that climate change is not scientifically proven. He gives no indication of any desire to develop alternative sources of energy that can mitigate the man made sources of pollutants. Instead he supports the rollback of environmental regulations all but giving companies a green light to pollute the environment and waste vital natural resources.

5 • Romney has lived a cloistered and privileged life and today has a very narrow view of the world. From the Cranbrook School to Brigham Young University, to Harvard Business School to Bain Capital, it’s difficult to imagine anyone who has been less exposed to the lives and conditions under which most Americans live. The covenants of his Mormon faith are extremely rigid, restrictive and unrealistic. His devotion to his faith is admirable, but his inability to step beyond the confines of that religion suggest that he would have difficulty reconciling who he is with who others are in an increasingly diverse world.

6 • Romney’s worldview is rooted in intolerance. He has a very narrow view of the world. America today is a diverse nation with many different racial groups, faiths, all in need of respect. The bully incident at his prep school and his aggressive corporate behavior buying and selling companies at Bain Capital suggest someone who has little desire help those who are different, less fortunate and in weaker position than him.

7 • Romney does not fully understand the transformative power of technological change. Mitt has no professional technical training. Most of the companies he invested in at Bain were low tech. His expertise is finance: specifically buying and selling companies. All this suggests someone who will pay lip service to the tech sector, but won’t fully grasp the potential for transforming the economy and culture through advancing technology.

8 • Romney is temperamentally unfit for the presidency. He is peevish, controlling and less than transparent. He has a rigid worldview that revolves around what is best for himself and a small circle of those who support him.

9 • Romney lacks direct foreign policy experience. His four years as Governor of Massachusetts do not give him sufficient knowledge or expertise to effectively deal with an increasingly complex world. On the job learners nearly always make blunders, sometimes blunders so large that they create huge problems for the U. S..

10 • Romney lacks integrity and honesty. His fudging of issues is a sign that he feels he can head fake his way though difficult debates. His statement that he does not remember the prep school bully incident is implausible. His evasiveness over release of tax forms and embellishment of his accomplishments are all red flags. His decisions as an executive at Bain Capital were not rooted in ethical behavior. The man is simply not forthright enough to earn the trust of the American people.

11 • Romney has no commitment to women or equal rights. There is little in his public statements or record to suggest he feels any responsibility for advancing the interests of women and minorities.

12 • Romney lacks sufficient charisma and personality to be a strong leader. The country needs someone to lead forcefully and inspire citizens to tackle problems that threaten the diminishment of American stature on the world stage. Romney’s robotic and reptilian personality fails to connect, leaving people feeling that Romney is in the game only for himself, rather than in it for the good of all.

Note: The author, John F. Ince of this article is a former classmate of Mitt Romney at Harvard Business School and former reporter at Fortune Magazine. He is the author of Mitt Romney: King of Bain and the Man Who Wants To Be President.

Here are the top 10 comments about Bain from Romney’s Republican rivals:

1. “The idea that you’ve got private equity companies that come in and take companies apart so they can make profits and have people lose their jobs, that’s not what the Republican Party’s about.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/12/12]

2. “The Bain model is to go in at a very low price, borrow an immense amount of money, pay Bain an immense amount of money and leave. I’ll let you decide if that’s really good capitalism. I think that’s exploitation.” — Newt Gingrich [New York Times, 1/17/12]

3. “Instead of trying to work with them to try to find a way to keep the jobs and to get them back on their feet, it’s all about how much money can we make, how quick can we make it, and then get out of town and find the next carcass to feed upon” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

5. “Now, I have no doubt Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips — whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company, Bain Capital, of all the jobs that they killed” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/9/12]

6) “He claims he created 100,000 jobs. The Washington Post, two days ago, reported in their fact check column that he gets three Pinocchios. Now, a Pinocchio is what you get from The Post if you’re not telling the truth.” — Newt Gingrich [1/13/12, NBC News]

7. “There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business, and I happen to think that’s indefensible” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

8. “If Governor Romney would like to give back all the money he’s earned from bankrupting companies and laying off employees over his years, then I would be glad to then listen to him” — Newt Gingrich [Mediaite, 12/14/11]

9. “If you’re a victim of Bain Capital’s downsizing, it’s the ultimate insult for Mitt Romney to come to South Carolina and tell you he feels your pain, because he caused it.” — Rick Perry [New York Times, 1/8/12]

10. “They’re vultures that sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick and then they swoop in, they eat the carcass. They leave with that and they leave the skeleton” — Rick Perry [National Journal, 1/10/12]

Just last night, Newt Gingrich defended his attacks, saying “I think there are things you can legitimately look at in Bain Capital. I think there are things you can legitimately look at in anybody’s record, including Mitt Romney’s record.”

ROMNEY ON TRACK TO LOSE ELECTION
Romney’s financial manipulations have, in the last 48 hours, exploded from mysterious shouldering embers into a political bonfire that could consume his entire campaign.
Romney is calling President Obama a liar and Obama is continuing his call for Romney to release full information about his financial manipulations and more than one year of tax returns.
Articles in the Washington Post and Boston Globe have probed and continue to probe into Romney’s convoluted finances and his years as CEO and owner of Bain Capital. Romney has called for retraction of these widely quoted articles without success.
For a Rachel Maddow interview with the Boston Globe writer who probed Romney’s SEC reports click here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/the-rachel-maddow-… .
For a broader discussion of Romney’s financial manipulations on Morning Joe click here: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/morning-joe/481735… .
Either Mitt Romney was “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” of Bain Capital from 1999-2002, when all sorts of ugly outsourcing and vulture fund activities were taking place, or he was just listed as “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” on the company’s documents, which means he was simply a figurehead collecting cash generated by said ugly outsourcing and vulture fund activities.
There appears to be more than ample multiple evidence that Romney is not telling the truth about completely leaving Bain after 1999. If you want to read all the details:
1. Click here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/12/mitt… ;
2. Click here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/us-… ;
3.Click here: http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/07/romne… ;
4. Click here: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/b… .
And these articles on Romney/Bain only scratch the surface. After the Boston Globe article on Thursday the Internet lit up like a Christmas tree as everyone with access seemed to have something to report.
More MoJo coverage of Mitt Romney (http://www.motherjones.com/category/tags/romn… ):
►The Mystery of Romney’s Exit From Bain:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/m… ;
►Romney Invested in Medical-Waste Firm That Disposed of Aborted Fetuses, Government Documents Show: http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/r… ;
►Romney Tax Tips: 10 Ways to Stiff the IRS:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/t… ;
►Mitt Romney’s Long History of Misremembering His Past:http://www.motherjones.co m/politics/2012/06/mitt-romney -history-problem;
►Get-Rich-Quick Profiteers Love Mitt Romney, and He Loves Them Back:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/m… ;
►How Romney Fibs—and Gets Away With It:http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/04/r… .
Of course the Obama campaign wasted no time getting out TV ads on the subject. One of the most recent has Romney singing “God Bless America” while the graphics pound him for his financial manipulations. Click here:http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/14… . Voters in the swing states are getting their first glimpse behind the mask of Romney’s polished campaign performance.

This all brings back Richard Nixon’s famous statement,“I am not a crook.”

The problem for Romney is that it is impossible for him to win an election campaign based on whether or not he is a potential criminal who has lied on legally required reports. Every day the media probes deeper into the Romney financial paper trail and reveals more and more conflicts between Romney’s personally signed reports and his recorded campaign statements is a day closer to his political defeat. If the present political bonfire doesn’t die down soon the GOP may decide at its late August convention to throw Romney under the bus.

Ed Schlick
WOLFEBORO, N.H.(AP)— President Barack Obama is keeping up a drumbeat of skepticism over Mitt Romney’s insistence — displayed in a blitz of TV interviews — that he stepped down from his private equity firm years earlier than federal records indicate.

Obama planned another day of campaigning in Virginia on Saturday, a state he won in 2008 but before that last supported a Democratic presidential nominee in 1964. Advisers said he would remind voters of the discrepancies between Securities and Exchange Commission filings and Romney’s recollection of his role at the Boston-based firm.

His re-election campaign released an ad that repeated its allegation that Romney’s Bain Capital shipped American jobs to China and Mexico; that Romney has personal wealth in investments in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands; and that as governor of Massachusetts, he outsourced state jobs to India.

“Mitt Romney’s not the solution. He’s the problem,” Obama’s latest ad says as it plays video of Romney awkwardly singing “America the Beautiful.”

The ad was set to run in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The ad, targeting Romney’s vast personal wealth, comes as Democrats — and some Republicans — call for Romney to release tax returns going back several years. Romney has said anew that he won’t go beyond releasing his 2010 tax records and, before the election, his 2011 taxes.

“You can never satisfy the opposition research team of the Obama organization,” Romney told CBS on Friday. In the same round of interviews in which he defended his account of his role at Bain, Romney said Obama owed him an apology for an aide’s suggestion that the Security and Exchange Commission filings, if false, could bring a felony charge.

“This is simply beneath the dignity of the presidency of the United States,” Romney told ABC.

It wasn’t just Obama, though, pushing the presumptive Republican nominee to put the issue of his tax returns and wealth to rest.

“Given the precedent set by past seven Presidents and Presidential candidates of releasing multi-year tax returns why is Romney making an exception?” Because he has a lot to hide, apparently.

He’s the only one that knows what’s in there, and apparently he’s made the judgement that he’s better off having us suspect the worst, rather than us knowing whats in there, which apparently in his mind is worse than anything we’re likely to imagine.

Possibilities include:

(1) He ended up with 120 million in his 401K by the trick of agreeing with Bain to grossly undervalue the market value of his stock, then a few years later have the stock get unvalued to the stratosphere.

(2) He participated in the tax avoidance amnesty program of a few years back, avoiding major tax penalties or prosecution.

(3) Any one or more of the other borderline legal but very bad smelling tax dodges– “in-kind” trades, “no-risk” trades, no-risk write-offs, the list is almost endless.

And BTW he HASNT even released all of his 2010 return, he very conveniently left off the foreign investments and deposits form. Very convenient.

And his argument that it would be “bothersome” to collect the tax data is a crock too– he supposedly collected 23 years of the stuff to show to McCain in 2008.
Ajay Jain===================================================================================

Republicans betrayed their own conscience when they went against established Republican principles like the MANDATE over healthcare which was a Heritage foundation issue popularized by Gingrich.

Obama did more than his share to UNITE but the Republicans were out to oppose for opposing sake and not following any policy or principles. In the famous words of Minority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell the Republicans were out to defeat the Obama agenda even if it went against established Republican policies set by past precedent.

Mitch McConnell was out to make sure that President Obama remains a one term President and see where it has brought the Congress and its public esteem.

Gingrich out of his own admission was out to defeat Obama from the day he was sworn in as President.

You can not justify the Republicans as the “loyal” opposition as is the case in most mature democracies. They have been out to get President Obama by hook or by crook. A leader can meet the opposition half way but can not fold completely to their whims and fantasies like that of the current Tea Party affiliates.

Republicans will loose in 2012 just like they did in 2008 but with a smaller margin because of the dark money of Billionaires due to Citizens United verdict of the right wing Supreme Court.

No body who has been drawing at LEAST $100,000.00 per year from 1999 to 2002 from Bain Capital “retroactively” retires from Bain Capital AFTER the 2002!!! Then why draw the salary of at LEAST $100,000.00 per year from 1999 to 2002 from Bain Capital if Romney retired from Bain “retroactively” !!!

” … Gillespie continued, “He took a leave of absence and, in fact, Candy, he ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February of 1999 as a result.” … ”

However SEC documents show Mitt Romney as sole owner of all shares of Bain Capital. Romney is also shown as CEO, President and Chairman of Board of Bain Capital in 2001 and 2002 then LEGALLY speaking Mitt Romney has been responsible to all that goes on under the banner of Bain Capital. Then to run for Governor of MA Romney sought residency of MA by lieu of his Bain positions. Now either Romney was at the Olympics OR he was at BAIN.

Only one can be true not BOTH at the same time simultaneously!!! Will the true Willard Mitt Romney stand up and accept ONE thing? Does Romney want to accept untrue SEC filings and be called a Felon or agree that he represented Bain from 1999 to 2002?

On Friday the 13th (7/13/2012) the very illusive Mitt Romney gave very defensive interviews to all FIVE networks on a single day at once!! Just a few days ago Mitt Romney said to FOX News that explaining means that you are WEAK. So his five interviews “explaining” his time at Bain were signs of his weakness!!

Presidential Candidate Mr. Mitt Romney maybe feeling the heat on his role in BAIN Capital, his business experience which was supposed to be his sole criteria for creating jobs and his greatest qualification for running for the American Presidency in the current economy in 2012!

However SEC documents show Mitt Romney as sole owner of all shares of Bain Capital. Romney is shown as CEO, President and Chairman of Board of Bain Capital in 2001 and 2002 then LEGALLY speaking Mitt Romney has been responsible to all that goes on under the banner of Bain Capital.

Mitt Romney can not just share the good like job creation from 1999 to 2002 and leave the ugly like Bankruptcies and layoffs behind as if he had nothing to do about them from 1999 to 2002.

If he really wanted to disassociate himself from Bain Capital he could have resigned and sold all his shares in Bain Capital in February 1999 then it would have been a different matter but to share in the glory of Bain’s job creation accept a salary of $100,000 or MORE (where are the Tax Returns?) for three years and only to refuse to take the responsibility of Bankruptcies and layoffs on his WATCH (1999-2002) is trying to have it both ways and then complaining of playing politics having been caught with his hand in the proverbial Cookie Jar that is the very essence of an ACTIVE LEGAL ROLE in Bain Capital till 2002!! Was Romney getting $100,000.00 or more to do NOTHING for BAIN Capital???

Mitt Romney will have to face the consequences of this leaving Bain “lie” that Mitt Romney has brought on upon himself. If we keep reminding the Romney campaign of the Bain exit lie and Romney’s ill effects on workers robbing them of their hard earned salaries and life long benefits all the way to November then 7/13/2012 (FRIDAY the 13th) will go down as the turning point of the 2012 Presidential election!